Sport boards, and more specifically foam sport boards, are well known in the art, and are used recreationally for gliding along a surface of snow. In this document, the term “sport board” is intended to refer to a style of board for sliding downhill on a snow-covered area. Traditionally, these boards were known as toboggans, or the like, on which a rider will sit, and which slides directly on surface of the snow, without the use of any runners or skis. While toboggans were at one time made of gathered wooden slats, and later metal (such as aluminum), modern sport boards are typically made from plastic materials which typically have a have a foam core encased within a harder plastic outer shell, to which outer shell, graphic materials and the like, can be affixed.
Sport boards can also be provided with handles near the sides of the top surface, so that the seated rider can hang on to the board while gliding on the snow's surface. Traditionally though, steering of a sport board is difficult, and the user merely rides along with the sport board.
This is also in contrast to snowboards, which are typically wooden or hard, rigid plastic, and which are relatively narrow boards on which a user stands while riding the snowboard. Snowboards are too small to sit on, and are generally “steered” by digging one edge of the snowboard or the other into the snow, and thus causing the snowboard to change direction.
Narrower skis, to be fitted individually to a user's feet are also well known.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,200, a ski or snowboard is disclosed which has a scored plastic sole in which the scores are generally sinusoidal and have a width of 0.05 to 0.4 mm and a depth of 0.01 to 0.05 mm. The board is made from plastic and the longitudinal distance between the scores is not addressed other than to indicate that several tens of them may lie side by side over the width of the board. The scores are made either by grinding or milling.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,249 discloses a snow gliding apparatus with a number of channels cut into the bottom of the board. The channels do not appear to be closely spaced. The channels are cut into the bottom surface of the apparatus with a router or some other cutting device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,422,228 describes a sport board in which the running surface of the board is provided by a substantially flexible and planar layer which has been laminated to the bottom of the board, and which planar layer includes a series of parallel and alternating grooves and ridges. About 10 to 80 grooves per inch are described, and the grooves are from 0.05 to 1 mm in depth. The grooves and ridges are aligned with a longitudinal axis of the sport board so as to promote travel in the direction that the board is aimed, and minimize any tendency for the board to rotate or veer offline.
While these devices provide some benefits to the toboggan or sport board art, it would still be advantageous to provide a foam core sport board with spaced grooves and ridges, which can be cost effectively manufactured and which would provide improved performance when in use. In particular, it would be beneficial to provide such a sport board which provides an enhanced ability to corner, and/or turn, in any direction desired by the operator.
Alternatively, it would be advantageous to provide a foam core sport board which can act, in part, as a snowboard, and thus allow the user to use the sport board in a manner similar to that of a snowboard.
Accordingly, one general objective of the present invention is to provide an improved sport board having a specific bottom surface that incorporates grooves and ridges, in a particular pattern, that provides improved gliding and turning properties.
In a further objective, the present invention also provides a sport board which can be easily converted to a snow board, and thus provide the user with the option of using the convertible board as either a sport board, or a snow board.